First African-born German lawmaker to stand down after threats, racist abuse
The first African-born Black person to be elected to Germany's federal lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has decided to step down.
Karamba Diaby, 62, said on Thursday that he would not be seeking re-election in the 2025 federal elections.
His decision to step down comes just weeks after he laid out a litany of hate messages he and his parliamentary staff had received.
The Senegalese-born chemist-turned-politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said he wanted to make room for younger people to enter the political scene.
He moved to the then East Germany in 1985 to study on a scholarship. He gained a PhD, became a chemist and obtained German nationality. He entered the Bundestag in 2013 in a moment hailed by equality campaigners as a historic landmark in German politics.
During his time in political scene he and his staff received numerous hate mail, including racist slurs and death threats, and his office came under bullet and arson attacks.
Diaby insisted the racist slurs and death threats were “not the main reasons” for his decision, having frequently emphasized he would not be cowed by threats.
In interviews, Diaby has emphasized an increasingly hostile mood in parliament and society, blaming the 2017 entry of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers to the Bundestag.
“Since 2017, the tone in the German parliament has become harsher,” he told the Berlin Playbook podcast of the news magazine Politico. Since AfD entered the Bundestag there has been a "totally new situation."
“We hear aggressive speeches from colleagues of the AfD," Diaby said.
“We hear derogatory and hurtful content in these contributions. That is truly a totally new situation compared to the period between 2013 and 2017. This aggressive style of talking is fertile breeding ground for the violence and aggression on the streets.”
Diaby's constituency office in Halle, Saxony Anhalt, has been the target of arson and gun bullet attacks.
His staff have faced blackmail attempts to stop them working for him and have been subjected to threats.
“In the last few years I’ve faced several murder threats. This has now overstepped the mark,” he said.
“The hatred that the AfD sows every day with its misanthropic narratives is reflected in concrete psychological and physical violence. This endangers the cohesion of our society. We cannot simply accept this.”
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